Shadows Of Oz
by Skeleton Band
Summary: Darkness is consuming all corners of Oz up to the Emerald City. One man can stop this Darkness from spreading. Only problem is what can you face what isn't there?
1. Chapter 1

I

_Help me! _The cry for help echoed in my mind. _Help me! _There it was again. For days this has been going on where I would get someone screaming for me to help them. I didn't know if I was going crazy or what. I tossed and turned trying to get it out of my mind but it was no use. The cry shattered my thought again…then subsided. I sat on the edge of my bed and rubbed my eyes. 12:52 a.m. Always like this I could never get back to sleep after hearing the voice; I would just fall asleep during the middle of the day now and not even know it. On the bedside table The Wizard Of Oz sat with its pages closed and resting, waiting to be awakened and its story re-told. I picked up the copy and thumbed through the pages and looked at the drawings of Dorothy and her companion's journeys throughout Oz. Getting up I took Oz with me and slipped it into my Oz bookcase in my own little library. I sat down in a big red leather armchair and scooted it up to a desk. On the desk laid a big red leather bound sketch book with the word Oz on it, the Z was intertwined with the O. I actually found the book at a hidden bookstore that I go to a lot. I opened it and thumbed through the sketches and drawings of Oz. Maps upon maps filled the pages. One of the maps was L. Frank Baum's idea of Oz and the other was Ruth Plumly Thompson's map of Oz. I drew several versions of my own Oz inside the pages and also maps of the Emerald City, the Wicked Witch Of The West's Castle, Dorothy's House, and etc. In the corner hung a flag of Oz that I made myself and it was only made of 5 colors. In the center was green for the Emerald City, at the top was purple for the Gillikin Country, at the bottom was red for the Quadling Country, at the left side was blue for the Munchkin Country, and to the right was yellow for the Winkie Country.

Right across the oak desk stood a long mirror that was set in a gold frame. I stared at my tired reflection and sighed. The books all around me seemed to sigh, knowing my pain is equal to theirs. I look out the window to my left and gazed at the moon knowing that a man smiled back, never sad. Out of the corner of my eye something caught my attention. In the mirror a strange foggy blue color shimmered. What seemed to be a hand pointed my way and beckoned for me. Suddenly it turned its head and let out a scream. The books in their places rattled and the mirror's face cracked. The image disappeared. I sat there staring at the mirror. Nothing happened at all. Nothing. I slowly got up and ran my hand over the mirror's surface. A sharp piece cut my finger and the blood trickled down the clear glass and slid into the cracks. The blood coursed through the cracks. A blue shadowy figure pounded on the mirror then fled. I shook my head to see if I was dreaming. I wasn't. I got out of my library quickly and went into my bedroom. I flung open the closet doors and tossed a shirt, pants, and a hoodie out on the bed. I stripped out of my sleeping clothes and donned the clothes out on the bed. I took a necklace off my dresser. Not looking back I felt the elevator descend down into the lobby of the penthouse.

As the elevator descended I fastened the Oz necklace around my neck and tapped my foot impatiently. The mirrored walls of the elevator held the same image in their faces, the strange figure being pursued. Could I not escape from this image? Why does it haunt me? I was deep in thought asking myself when the elevator doors dinged and opened. The white lobby blinded my tired eyes as I stepped out of the elevator. Mirrors on the wall in front of the elevators bore the same image. It wasn't going away. The desk clerk greeted me. I just ignored her and walked out. The desk clerks always seemed to be perky even at midnight when they had their stupid night shifts.

Something was wrong.


	2. Chapter 2

II

Lights flashed. Sirens blared drowning out the cries. I ran. I ran. My heart beat like a drum screaming out a battle cry. People clung to each other. Crying. Mourning. A furry of sadness and anger swept over me as I pushed through the crowd of police and mourners. An officer stopped me from crossing the police line. I stared up at the sign of the store. _Threshold_. The dam burst and tears streamed down my face as I stared up at the sign. The crowd parted. A gurney with a blanket was pushed through the crowd. A white hand fell off the gurney bed and dangled. The crowd gasped. Someone slipped the hand back underneath the sheet. Everyone was quiet as they lifted up the gurney and locked the doors of the ambulance. Somebody shouting gibberish was hauled out of the store and the crowd parted even more.

"Lies! All lies! It's disappearing! Consumed! Consumed by darkness that will soon take over your world! Nothing can stop it! Nothing!" The man shouted as he struggled with the two officers who held him.

The two officers took the man behind a van.

We heard a gunshot.

I pushed my way through the crowd. Tears still flowed from all of us. The alleyway was dark. Nothing stirred. Not the wind. Not anything. Thunder cracked. Lightning flashed. The rain poured down. Hiding my tears. A puddle on the ground showed the blue foggy figure moving, trying to find something. I kicked the image. It disappeared. A rusty door swung open. I saw the door. It was unlocked. The padlock broken. Inside the building it was horrible and struck me deep. Books were scattered all over, their pages torn their binding ripped, some scorned with blood. The books lied all around like dead bodies that have fought a vicious battle. The blood smelled fresh. I wondered as I wandered through the remains of what used to be Threshold. It was gone now. All gone. No more. I sank down against a bookcase and broke down sobbing, not able to stop. I picked up a book and hurled it somewhere. I picked up another but stopped. The tears still flowed. Through the splotches of blood I could make out the title: _The Oz Chronicles Volume 1_. Right beside me was volume 2. I picked both up and my body shook with anger and sadness. Who would kill such a weak man? Who? And why?


	3. Chapter 3

III

I walked through the battleground. Kicking the dead bodies. Not caring. The books had no life now. Nothing could bring them back. Even if they were brought out of the darkness and into the light nobody would care to read their torn pages and blood soaked covers. I wiped my eyes and could feel the crying of the books. Weeping. Weeping in tune with me. I walked to the back of the building and sat down on a battered leather couch and bent over. Staring into the flames in the fireplace. I grabbed a book and tossed it into the dragon's mouth. Then another. And another.

_Why?_

_Why did this have to happen? It didn't have to happen to you. Why did you have to be killed? You've done nothing wrong. Baum. Why? _

A voice echoed through the flickering shadows. _Help me. There isn't much time. You must find a way to us. You're our last hope. All of our heroes have failed. Save our land from the darkness that is spreading._ The voice died.

The sky was clear showing stars high in the heavens as I came out of the building that Death had last visited. The crowd in front of Threshold parted. I looked back at the store and wondered who and why would kill a bookstore owner. The night was warm yet it was cold for me. Everything seemed cold now. There was nowhere for me to go. I couldn't go back home because of my books and the strange figure haunting me. I couldn't go to Threshold like I used to when I was troubled. The only other place I loved to go was the cemetery. It was quiet there. Nobody would be around at night. Nobody.

It was quiet there. Eerie yet quiet. Fog hugged the ground and tombstones, covering them in a blanket. I crossed through the broken iron gate of the cemetery and walked down the brick path checking out the tombstone names. I crossed through the field of sleeping bodies going northward when the brick path stopped abruptly, ending in a circle. In front of me was a strange tombstone with the Oz symbol. I looked at the name, _Ozma Pastoria_, my mother. It was strange that she bore the title of the princess of Oz. I never knew my mother's background, for she never spoke of it. I never knew my father. My mother said he was dead. As I stared longingly at the grave tears began to fall. I didn't stop the tears. I couldn't help but think of what happened to my mother. She just fell down one day and didn't get up. I was sitting there playing with blocks when it happened. I called out to her. She didn't answer. I cried so much until the neighbors heard me. The doctors told me that her heart couldn't take her husband being dead and her heart broke. I believed it then. I don't believe it now. A voice called out from the fog. Somewhere. Someone was out there. I looked around me for the voice. Nobody was there.

The fog rose up in front of me. I stumbled back into a large angelical statue. The fog resembled a girlish figure, like the ones I had seen. She beckoned out to me and I placed my hand in her foggy one. Our hearts were as one. I felt her troubles. Her sorrows. Her aches. Her pains. Her undying love for her country. Her duty to sacrifice anything to protect it. She let go of my hand and placed her hand over her heart.

_My name is Ozma_

"My name is Ozz," I said bowing.

_You've been named well dear Ozz. No. I have not come to you to talk about silly matters like your name. What I have come here to your world is far more important and the time is nigh for you to come and join me in battle. _

Ozma seemed to read my mind.

_You know that many forces have tried to take over Oz in the stories L. Frank Baum have written over the wireless with Dorothy's aid have you not?_

"I have"

_That wireless connection was destroyed with the coming of Baum over to Oz. In those stories he wrote you know of the Wicked Witch Of The West, Mombi, General Jinjur, the Nome King, Queen Ann Soforth of Oogaboo, and Ugu. All have failed but now a new force has come to threaten us. This force has succeeded like no other before. The force is so dark no one can see what it is and when they do see it they are swallowed up by the Darkness. All of our heroes have failed in trying to defeat the Darkness. I even sent a letter to Ruggedo the Nome King asking him if he sent the Darkness. He said he's even afraid of it. It's darker than his darkest dungeons. _

"What do you want me to do, Ozma? I'm just a mortal. Neither a faerie nor an Ozian."

_You saw that man that was screaming about the Darkness didn't you?_

"What about him? Are you saying that I'll end up like him?"

Both me and Ozma seemed to be enraged with the other.

_No. He's from Oz. A Munchkin. He's seen the Darkness. Been in the very threshold of it. The thought of being in the Twilight before the Darkness made him frightened so he came running to me begging me and clawing at me to send him out of Oz before it was too late. I needed somebody to go warn you. I guess something must have frightened him so bad that he didn't know where you were so I had to come to you by means of the mirrors. _

"How do I even know what I'm fighting? Nobody has even seen this thing. Even if they have they're probably dead or frightened."

_The Darkness is caused by the disbelief and lack of imagination. The Oz books are disappearing from the shelves. They're being banned everywhere. People can't read them anymore so they don't think about Oz at all. That's why. The disbelief of Oz is darkness which comes to our world and consumes it. If Oz is consumed then all of Nonestic Continent will be too. After Nonestic is Earth, your world. After that then Darkness will reign but not before becoming hungry enough for the universe and beyond. Don't you see? Can't you understand what pain my land is in? The pain is too bearable for me and my people. I'm the one carrying all this pain on my shoulders just like Atlas. So please Ozz help me and my people. You're our only hope. _

"Why me? Why must I do it? Can't you save your own country?"

_I have fled Oz. I don't have any power. How sad it is for your own country to be suddenly against you. My own people keep on forming mobs in front of the palace about the Darkness which eats away Oz every day. I fled to Ev. Now it's my only safe haven. Maybe next it might be the kingdom of Rinkitink, or maybe the Kingdom Of Dreams, but I heard you have to die to go there. I don't know where to go next. I'm so afraid. _

Ozma's figure wept. I was sitting on the angel's feet huddled in my leather jacket listening.

I stood up, "what can I do to help you?"

_Follow me. _That was all she said.

Ozma's figure floated through the fog. She led me out of the graveyard and down a twisted path into a forest. The path was twisted and gnarled as Ozma led mw through the trees. Branches and boughs slapped me in the face. Unseen roots tripped me. Ozma still fled onward. The night was getting darker and colder. The fog thicker and heavier. Ozma halted up ahead. I came out of the woods panting from running so far without stopping. She stood on the edge of a lake with the water lapping her feet. It was beautiful. The lake was the center of a small valley with forests surrounding the lake. All around us were mountains. I guessed that we were several miles from town. In the center of the calm lake were two massive rocky pinnacles connected by a rocky bridge. Ozma stepped forth onto the waters. Step by step she took across the waters. Ozma turned to me and beckoned.

_Come. Come. Its all right. _

Following Ozma's words I set one foot on the water and pushed down to see if it would go through. It didn't. I set all my weight on my right foot on the water and set my left foot and stood on the water. Slowly I started to walk step by step, inch by inch, across the lake behind Ozma. I was a natural born Jesus re-born all over again! Ozma was standing on a rocky corkscrew path winding around one of the rocky pinnacles in the middle of the lake. I stood on the water near the start of the path. She just turned and started up the path. I followed up the narrow trail. Orion looked down at and shot me a warrior's smile then resumed his battle with Taurus in the sky. I looked back up at that warrior's stars and wished for his bravery. Each step I took the darkness seemed to be riddled with questions in my mind. Each step I took I saw a small ray of hope, a tiny ray of light, in all the darkness there was. The top of the rock pinnacle was a great splendor to take in. Ozma was standing by a cavern entrance on the other side of the bridge. The bridge was narrow yet short to cross to the other side. It was windy as I crossed. The wind bit at my face and skin, chilling me to the bone. The wind stopped as I got across the bridge.

Ozma was standing by the cavern entrance. It looked dark and cold in there.

_In here is one of the known entrances to Oz that I know of. I don't know where it goes to in Oz or in Nonestic. Please take it and save my people. If you land in Nonestic find your way towards Ev and I'll be there to help as much as I can. _

Ozma's foggy figure leaned forward and kissed me on the forehead. I slipped into the small entrance and looked back. Ozma waved to me. The stairs were cut out of the solid rock and I descended into the cold hell. I heard Ozma cry out.

_Goodbye Ozz and good luck. _


End file.
